Subscribe
Follow Us
The Brooklyn Nets (4-3) currently sit in 8th place in the East. They've won three of their last four games and two in a row. During the last two contests, wins over the Pacers and Pistons respectively, they played cohesively and the shots were really falling. But they have a bigger test coming on Wednesday when they'll take on the Atlanta Hawks; last year's Eastern Conference runner-up, Trae Young's squad having made the final four in 2021.
Here are three things we'll need to see from the Nets if they want to record their third victory in a row and avoid falling back to .500 in the standings.
Brooklyn's Keys To A Win In Nets-Hawks Game
3) Quality play from a front-court player
With Nic Claxton (who has drawn starts earlier in the year) set to miss some time with a non-COVID illness, the Nets will look towards their bench for front court play. Originally we expected Blake Griffin, one of the few holdovers from last year's playoff rotation to step up. Griffin isn't off to a great start, although there isn't much concern from his head coach Steve Nash, who says those things are to be expected. Instead it has been LaMarcus Aldridge propelling them to victory in big spots. LMA even recorded a major milestone recently, notching over 20,000 career points.
The dude is shooting a ridiculous 34-of-50 from the field, for 68 percent. His patented midrange assault has given defenses fits. He doesn't quite space the floor in terms of three point shooting, however, he gives opposing bigs enough reason to leave the paint in order to take away his jump shot. When they don't, and decide they must protect the rim, that's when Aldridge feasts by knocking down 20 footers.
Aldridge has scored at least 16 points in three of his six appearances, topping 20 points twice. Another good game out of Aldridge would be further evidence he's looking like he'll be a key member of this front court; something nobody expected when he abruptly retired last season.
But if either Blake Griffin or Paul Millsap were to step up instead, that would give head coach Steve Nash even more ammo from the big rotation moving forwards.
2) Keep up the improved rebounding against a good team
After getting attacked on the glass in the loss to Miami, the Nets have…rebounded (forgive me) nicely in the rebounding department. The Heat out boarded Brooklyn 62-42 a few games ago, 17 of those were offensive leading to a 31-4 advantage in second-chance points. That's nearly the perfect recipe for an L which they took.
But they out boarded their opponents in each of the next two games over Indiana and Detroit. Coach Nash has talked about the importance of gang-rebounding and not leaking out looking for fast-breaks until the possession is secured. It seems the team has heeded his advice there. The Heat pose a particular challenge there for most teams. Miami leads the league in boards with 62.3 per game.
Atlanta isn't quite as good as the Heat but they do rank 8th overall in total boards and 3rd overall in offensive (13.3) boards per game. So if the Nets are getting initial stops, it will be a good test to see if they can clean-the-glass against a team who normally feasts on second-chance opportunities.
1) More Burst from The Beard
It seems wild that we're only seven games into the season when you consider how much has been made about James Harden's slow start. Harden admitted after a recent win that he expected to start off slowly, given how much time he spent away from full-court hoops dealing with that hamstring issue. And you've heard about how the new rule changes have affected him as well.
It makes sense to expect this to take some time before he is back to All-NBA form. But there have been flashes over the last two games. Harden broke out with 19 free throw attempts last week against Indiana, and he notched a triple double through three quarters in a win over the Pistons.
The probably Nets shouldn't expect this level of play from him each night…yet. They should be conservative with his minutes in the season's early going as he acclimates to the NBA grind. They were conservative with Kevin Durant's minutes last season and it makes sense to do that with Harden's here. But it's a tremendous sign that he has looked as quick and explosive as he has over the last two games.
Beyond simply beating the Hawks and recording their third consecutive victory, it would be a massive lift for this team if Harden looks like All-NBA Harden for three straight contests.
